Thai official: 5 reported missing from sunken boat are alive

A Chinese relative of a victim in the recent boat sinking is consoled at the Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket, Thailand, Sunday, July 8, 2018. from Chalong pier in Phuket, Thailand, Sunday, July 8, 2018. Thai authorities have begun operations to salvage a tour boat that sank in a storm off the southern resort island of Phuket, killing 41 people, as they search for another 14 missing tourists. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Thai authorities say five people reported to have been missing from a boat that sank off the southern resort island of Phuket last week are alive.

It’s not clear if the five survived the sinking or were never on the boat in the first place.

Phuket Gov. Norrapat Plodthong says authorities are trying to verify details and some of the five may have already left Thailand.

A Chinese relative of a victim in the recent boat sinking is consoled at the Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket, Thailand, Sunday, July 8, 2018. from Chalong pier in Phuket, Thailand, Sunday, July 8, 2018. Thai authorities have begun operations to salvage a tour boat that sank in a storm off the southern resort island of Phuket, killing 41 people, as they search for another 14 missing tourists. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Norrapat also said Monday the boat that sank in a storm Thursday afternoon carried 89 tourists, mostly Chinese, instead of 93.

He said 10 people are now missing, instead of the previous figure of 14, including the five people believed to have survived. The death toll remains at 42.

He said the revised numbers of tourists and the missing followed new information from Thai immigration and the Chinese Embassy.

A Chinese relative of a victim in the recent boat sinking is consoled at the Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket, Thailand, Sunday, July 8, 2018. from Chalong pier in Phuket, Thailand, Sunday, July 8, 2018. Thai authorities have begun operations to salvage a tour boat that sank in a storm off the southern resort island of Phuket, killing 41 people, as they search for another 14 missing tourists. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

A rescued tourist in the recent boat sinking, Huang Junxiong, is wheeled back to his bed at the Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket, Thailand, Sunday, July 8, 2018. Thai authorities have begun operations to salvage a tour boat that sank in a storm off the southern resort island of Phuket, killing 41 people, as they search for another 14 missing tourists. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Tourists look out from a tour boat at the Chalong pier in Phuket, Thailand, Sunday, July 8, 2018. Thai authorities have begun operations to salvage a tour boat that sank in a storm off the southern resort island of Phuket, killing 41 people, as they search for another 14 missing tourists. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

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